ALAMEDA — The City Council has taken a key step toward allowing Alameda Point Partners, the team of developers working to build housing and commercial space at the former U.S. Navy base, to continue moving forward with their $500 million project.

On Tuesday, the council amended its agreement with the team to remove a provision that would have allowed the city to withhold building permits for the project’s market-rate housing beyond the planned 395 market-rate units if not all financing is available by December for those units.

The action was also needed to help clear the way to secure financing and to take other steps to get infrastructure built. The 68-acre project calls for 800 apartments, townhomes and condominiums and would open up 600,000 square feet of commercial space for development at Alameda Point.

Along with housing and commercial space, the project commits about $2.5 million toward rehabilitating and leasing an existing 100,000-square-foot building for light industrial and specialty manufacturing.

Alameda Point Partners has also pledged $10 million toward a new ferry terminal. Called Site A by city officials, the area set for redevelopment is centered around what is called the Seaplane Lagoon and is bordered by Pan Am Way, West Tower Avenue and Main Street.

A groundbreaking is expected in April on construction to get infrastructure improvements in place. As part of the first phase of the project, 130 affordable housing units will be constructed in two buildings by Eden Housing, a nonprofit affordable housing developer. One will be a “family” building with 70 units, while the second will be a “senior building with 60 units. The rest of the project is anticipated to be constructed in three phases over the next 15 years.

Alameda Point Partners includes Madison Marquette and Thompson Dorfman Partners, which were involved in the Bay Street redevelopment in Emeryville. It also includes SRM Ernst Development Partners, which was behind the VF Outdoor campus and the Peet’s Coffee & Tea roasting facility at the Harbor Bay Business Park near Oakland International Airport. It is led by Alameda resident Joe Ernst.

Crews from several fire departments are battling a major grass fire late Saturday afternoon that has claimed at least 500 acres in a rural area in Solano County between Vacaville and Winters, and is prompting mandatory evacuations, firefighters said.